User reviews

Few franchises have nose dived to the extent of the Hellraiser series. What started out as an ingenious memorable horrific set of movies turned into bafflingly bad boring titles with little relevance to what we had learned to love.

Hellraiser Deader is just one of many recent dire attempts at cashing in on Pinhead and though this one does feature Doug Bradley he is on screen for mere moments.

Starring Kari Wuhrer who to her credit is better than usual here we have another confused tale revolving around a cult and the infamous puzzle box. Sadly once again it makes little sense and is immensely boring.

Fans of the series will not be happy with this one.

Hopefully one day Hellraiser will find its way home, for now it's well and truly lost in the desert.

The Good:

One tense scene

Wuhrer is on form

The Bad:

Confusing plot

Practically no cenobites at all

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

When entering a property and finding a corpse that you have no intention of reporting it makes perfect sense to leave your fingerprints everywhere

Alike the real world the term "God help me" has never worked in movies

A rather forgettable additional to the Hellraiser universe that quite frankly could have been left out and no one would have missed it.

To make an effective Hellraiser movie you cannot simply inject Pinhead and the Coenobites into any old script and expect it to carry any essence of the universe to which they belong.

Deader is a rather apt name for the movie as it also describes the writing.

Its not the worst entry in the franchise but it is another example of sucking at the teat of what was once an iconic movie series.

I'm glad this hasn't been the end of the series and have rejoiced at the 2022 Hellraiser which finally does something for the fans :)

The latest installment in the Hellraiser series is by far and wide the worst entry. Fans seem to be torn in regards to the direction the direct to video sequels have taken. Some are upset Pinhead is no longer a central character, some don't care. I love Hellraiser II which features Pinhead prominently and I also love Inferno in which he barely has a cameo. So I am not biased either way. I will not tear this movie down just because Doug Bradley has a minuscule role. I will tear it down for being an incoherent piece of crap. This particular script was pre-existing (simply titled Deader) and the good folks at Dimension decided that they could turn it into a stellar Hellraiser film. It didn't work. Clive Barker's Cenobites just don't fit into this story. It's as simple as that. And that title: Deader. Talk about poor English. Expect yet another Hellraiser sequel (again directed by Rick Bota) in September.

Rick Bota returns as director, and again delivers a film in the form of a mystery thriller. This time about a reporter on an assignment to find a missing woman. In her search for answers, she ends up much deeper than she ever thought possible, and I thought Kari Wuhrer was rather good as reporter Amy Klein. The story was not originally written for the Hellraiser franchise; instead an existing script was converted for the series, and that's evident, as there's very little resemblance to the previous films. Just as with Hellraiser 6, there are way too many dreams and hallucinations. It is almost as if they had different ideas and opinions for the film but didn't know how to incorporate all of them, so they did so via means of the dreams and hallucinations. It wasn't scary, and it wasn't NOT scary. It wasn't bad, and not all that good either, but certainly more enjoyable than 3, 4 & 5 in the series. The stabbing scene in the hotel room was incredibly well done!! Pinhead again only appears very late in the film, and only stays around long enough to convince us this is indeed a Hellraiser film .

There's an unwritten rule in horror cinema that says: you know you're in trouble once they stop numbering the sequels to originally successful genre classics. This is the seventh installment in the Hellraiser franchise and yet they already stopped giving them numbers since "Hellraiser (4): Bloodline". And can you guess where exactly it started to go wrong with the series?? Oh well...the good thing about these Hellraiser movies is that, no matter how mediocre the stories are, there are always some remotely interesting elements in them to satisfy horror lovers. In this seventh entry those elements are the presence of Kari Wuhrer, some sinister settings and really a lot of gore. Wuhrer stars as a chain-smoking, hard ass journalist who's sent to Bukarest to investigate the bloody rites of an underground cult. The leader seems to have a talent to bring recently deceased persons back to life and he promises his followers a world of pleasure once they returned from death. What he really looks for, however, is the one person who's able to open the mysterious puzzle box in his possession. As you can guess, our female journalist is that chosen person and she'll have to fight both the leader of the cult and Pinhead; the ruler of hell. The actual plot of "Deader" definitely shows potential, but it's confusing and it tries to be overly intelligent. Pinhead's share in the story is limited, as it already was in the previous two sequels, and he seems dragged into it simply because it wouldn't sell otherwise. The sequences inside the Romanian subway-trains are nice to look at and there's a lot of gruesome butchering going on. Kari Wuhrer is a talented and beautiful actress but she starred in too many dire, straight-to-video horror productions already. Apart from this failure, she also appeared in two sequels of "The Prophecy", a turkey called "Final Examination" and in the belated sequel to "The Hitcher". Even the bigger productions she starred in recently ("King of the Ants", "Eight Legged Freaks") were disappointments. We have another Rick Bota sequel coming up, namely "Hellworld".

Hellraiser VII: Deader (2005) is a movie that I recently rewatched for the first time in a long time on MAX. The storyline follows a reporter who finds a tape that shows a cult bringing the dead back to life. She thinks this could be her big break and the story of a lifetime...she might be right.

This movie is directed by Rick Bota (Hellraiser: Hellworld) and stars Kari Wuhrer (Eight Legged Freaks), Linda Marlowe (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy), Simon Kunz (The Parent Trap), Paul Rhys (Chaplin), Doug Bradley (Nightbreed) and Georgina Rylance (War Machine).

This did have a more realistic storyline than some of the Hellraiser sequels and the main character was easy to root for (she reminded me of Ashley Judd). The subway scenes in here were pretty cool and it was a good subplot to add to the storyline. Those scene's definitely added intensity to the circumstances. However, this is another Hellraiser movie without enough Pinhead. It's too bad because the beginning and ending of this movie are great. The opening corpse in the bathroom was awesome and the last 12 minutes of the film were the best part of the movie. We needed more scenes like the end.

Overall, this sequel had the most potential since Hellraiser III, but still doesn't live up to expectations due to an underuse of Pinhead. I would score this a 5/10 and recommend seeing it once.

A London journalist travels to Bucharest to investigate a cult called "The Deaders", who seemingly have the power to return back to life.

Kari Wuhrer stars as Amy, an investigative journalist for an underground newspaper sent on assignment in Romania after her editor (Simon Kunz) receives a video tape of cult ritual in which a woman commits suicide but is then revived. Once there, Amy becomes entangled with the local subculture and tracks down Winter LeMarchand (Paul Rhys), leader of The Deaders and descendant of the puzzle box maker from Hellraiser: Bloodline.

Hellraiser: Deader is not a particularly good movie, but it's honestly one of the better Hellraiser sequels. The characters at least have traits and motivations, and the movie feels a little bit higher budget than Hellraiser: Hellseeker thanks to more set variety, something which was accomplished within the budget due to filming in Romania. (By the way, this movie was filmed in 2002 but shelved for a few years).

There were a couple scenes I enjoyed; one in which Amy searches a disgusting apartment for clues, and another in which a character tries to remove a knife from their own back (which looked like fun). I also thought the acting was decent, at least by Hellraiser standards. Overall there were some things to like, especially in the earlier parts of the film.

Unfortunately, Hellraiser: Deader still suffers from some of the same problems as its predecessor. There are constant fake-out dream sequences, and it gets to the point that it's difficult to figure out which scenes are real or fake. Furthermore, director Rick Bota (who also directed Hellseeker) makes some questionable choices once again, including too much slow motion. There's also one scene near the beginning of the movie which is really bizarrely edited; it keeps flashing back and forth between Amy getting on a train and having a conversation in her boss's office. I get what they were going for, but the way they went about it is jarring.

For me, the movie really fell apart in act three. Without spoiling it, logic was thrown out the window, and the conclusion of the film was very stupid. This ending was a result of shoehorning the Cenobites into the film, as Hellraiser: Deader is yet another Hellraiser film based on a spec script that originally didn't feature Pinhead and company.

Worse, of all the movies in the series up to this point, Pinhead felt the most of out place. He and the cenobites seem to revert back to the "boogeyman" status of Hellraiser III, and have very little to do with the plot until the very end of the film - where they appear and ruin the movie. Not to be mean, Pinhead was looking kinda old - and dare I say a little pudgy - in this one. It doesn't help that his entire head seems to be grey, except his eyes, ears, and mouth which are blue; this ruins the illusion, as it's painfully obvious he's wearing makeup and prosthetics.

Hellraiser: Deader has issues, but it isn't the worst Hellraiser movie. It's more watchable than most of the films in the series, even though it suffers from many of the same pitfalls. In what is clearly a bad horror franchise, I would rewatch this direct-to-video entry before most of the others.

HELLRAISER: DEADER is pretty good, especially in the first half which has two of the more intense and creepy scenes I have seen in a DTV flick in a while. I'm talking, of course, about the first videotape and when Amy explores the abandoned house.

Where DEADER fails is when it tries to tie into the HELLRAISER mythology. As has been well publicized, DEADER started out as an original screenplay by Neal Marshall Stevens that Dimension Films bought for no less than 1 million dollars. Then they lost faith in it and let it collect dust before hiring Tim Day to do a rewrite and turn it into a HELLRAISER sequel. I don't blame the guy, because he probably did the best he could, given such a ridiculous task. But it's a shame that DEADER did end up like this. Without the 30 seconds worth of Pinhead at the end this could have been a minor genre masterpiece. As it stands, it's just a bizarre, schizophrenic film with some outstanding moments, some scenes that really work and some that really don't. Once again, shame on Dimension Films for wasting this opportunity.

In addition to original screenwriter Stevens, director Rick Bota also deserves some praise. He's made a good looking and often tense film that is never less than competent. Hopefully he'll be able to break free from his current job at Dimension eventually. The guy has talent.

The Hellraiser film set ended after bloodline. This like the others after bloodline which are less slasher more trying to be some kind of deep psychological horror. Of course like the others its fails miserably and leaves you yearning for something to actually happen. Thats not to say the previous films did not have 'mess with your head' factor, They certainly did. However they managed it on a level that wasn't thought out, it came across more as a by-product of the film. You get to see pinhead about once for a proper scene and its nothing to write home about.

I would not bother even renting this film if you started out as a big fan of the first few. If you're easily scared they get it, why not.

Well finally "Hellraiser: Deader" has arrived after a few years gathering dust on the shelf.

I agree with other members that it does seem to breathe some life in to this once outstanding franchise, but as with the other sequels it just lacks what the earlier films had in abundance. My personal view is that you can really tell that this wasn't written as a "Hellraiser" film.

For the first half hour or so except with the odd reference to "The Box" this could have been any other horror film and it kind of remains that way throughout.

The one thing really missing for me as with "Hellraiser: Inferno" and "Hellraiser: Hellseaker" is we just don't see enough of the "Cenobites".

I don't just mean "Pinhead" I mean all of them. You see a few glancing shots of them, but I'm sorry its just not enough. Its does seem a waste not giving them screen time. There are 6 "Cenobites" in this movie ("Pinhead", "Chatterer", "Bound", "Stitch", "Little Sister") & ("Spike" in the bonus material!) why are all these needed for 5 minutes of screen time? To be fair they did seem to play a bigger part in this than Parts V or VI, however they have almost become extras or cameos these days.

I have read a few comments from other users saying that these films are not about "Pinhead" but there is a reason he has been in all of the franchise to date.

I agree that one of the strengths of "Hellraiser" is they are stand alone stories, but in any franchise you need a recurring factor and the "Cenobites" and in particular "Pinhead" is it.

The "Cenobites" are "Hellraiser", which is why the later films don't feel like "Hellraiser" movies at all.

"Hellraiser: Deader" is a good and one of the better sequels to date and should give all fans hope for "Hellraiser: Hellworld" but as I remarked with "Hellraiser: Hellseaker" the fleeting glimpses of the "Cenobites" just are not enough.

Get back to the essence of the movies and set the story around them or let them play a major part again. The later films in this series sadly, could have been so much more.

This latest instalment in the Hellraiser series is probably the worst since Bloodline.

You won't care for a single character and the constant flashbacks only hinder an already poor plot which seems out of context with anything that has come before it, at times it's like Buffy with a cameo from Pinhead.

Sadly the low budget roots aren't as well disguised as Inferno/Hellseeker and it clearly looks and feels like a TV Movie!

The amount of screen time that Pinhead has is limited (like the past two movies) only in this case he isn't as sinister when he does make an appearance.

Definitely one to avoid, watch Hellraiser 6 if you want a good sequel.

Well...I blame these sequels on the Weinsteins almost entirely...made for market fluff. Hellraiser: Bloodline was probably the only installment that had anything unique to it, and let us not forget the overwhelming sins of Hellraiser 3: The Greatest Blunder Ever Told.

But I digress. A persistent formula has manifested again: Someone opens the box who doesn't realize what they've done and find out at the end he/she is in the Cenobite's realm and now it's their ass.

I'd really like these movies to stop. Let's have Pinhead's Corner: A segment hosted by Pinhead the film critic where upon completion of the review he tears the soul of the director apart...maybe the producer too. That would be a giggle.

Like Hellseeker (2002) before it, Deader, the seventh entry into Clive Barker's Hellraiser franchise, takes an unrelated spec script and shoe-horns in a couple of fleeting appearances from Doug Bradley's Pinhead to try and justify its inclusion of 'Hellraiser' in the title. Say what you will about the first two sequels (I thought they were pretty bad), but they at least felt like they were set in the same universe as the wonderfully disturbing 1987 original. Returning director Rick Bota delivers yet another straight-to-video, poorly- acted stinker that looks as if it was directed by a group of goth kids making their first student film.

This time, the plot revolves around investigative reporter Amy Klein (Kari Wuhrer), a feisty and dedicated type who always goes the extra mile to get to the heart of the stories she covers. We first meet her writing a story in a dingy crack house before she is shipped off to Budapest (where production is cheap) to investigate a mysterious group named the 'Deaders'. Based on footage recorded on a VHS tape, the Deaders are led by Winter (Paul Rhys), a man with the ability to bring people back to life. Her sleuthing leads to a corpse holding the Lament Configuration, which when opened unleashes Pinhead. The Cenobite warns Amy that Winter is operating outside of his control, and that he is a descendant of the toymaker who created the puzzle box. Is it all a dream, or are there supernatural forces at work?

As to whether what you are watching is in fact a dream or not won't be a question you'll linger on for long. Like Dean Winters' character in Hellseeker, Amy ends many scenes by suddenly jerking out of a nightmare. It's a cheap, tiresome tactic which quickly removes any tension the film may have had otherwise. The idea of seeking the ultimate pleasure and, of course, the dangers that come with it, is a key theme running throughout the series, but this is all but gone in favour of a lightweight tale of an emo cult playing with resurrection. There's also a startling lack of gore. Regardless of how bad the preceding sequels are, you could always rely on a gruesome scene or two to keep you awake, so Deader's main issue is that it's a complete bore. Frighteningly, this is one of two Hellraiser films released in 2005.

It did take me a while to get round to watching 'Hellraiser' and its sequels, despite being on my to watch list for some time. Due to having so much to watch and review, and the list keeps getting longer and longer. Horror is not my favourite genre, but there is the appreciation for it and there are many very good, great and even classic films (as well as a fairly high number of schlock).

The first 'Hellraiser' is by far the best, being a very good film that is scary, original and very atmospheric with a surprising amount of ambition and intelligence. Meanwhile, the sequels were very hit and miss (leaning towards the miss and the latter films particularly are suggestive of the franchise having run its course. The second film is the best of them, while the third and fourth films were watchable if problematic. It was with 'Inferno' where the franchise went down south in quality, though it was with 'Hellseeker' where things became properly bad.

'Hellraiser: Deader' is for me, and quite a number of others it looks like, one of the worst of the series. There are a few good things but they are quickly lost in a sea of very bad, the worst assets being terrible.

The film does start off well, it does have creepiness, intrigue and atmosphere to begin with. Some of the imagery is memorably eerie and looks quite good thankfully rather than schlocky.

Kari Wuhrer is a more than serviceable lead and is committed. Doug Bradley doesn't disappoint, he has little to work with and what he has is beneath him but he makes the most of it and is frightening.

On the other hand, most of 'Hellraiser: Deader' looks cheap, especially the editing, and like it was made hastily and like budget was minimal. The music adds nothing, doesn't fit and is not very appealing on its own. The direction is complacent, and other than Wuhrer and Bradley the acting is dire. Even the usually more than watchable Paul Rhys is bad. Their bland and annoying clichés passing for characters and embarrassingly laughable dialogue (rambling, cheesy and camp) that is impossible to take seriously or to take for what it is does ill-serve them.

A major problem is that once again, it doesn't feel like a 'Hellraiser' film, Pinhead and the Cenobites come over once again as literally shoe-horned in and have so little to do that one questions why they're even there in the first place. At least Pinhead makes a little impression, the Cenobites have completely lost their creepiness and mysteriousness and might as well not been there at all, even the previous sequels didn't waste them this much. The rest of the film completely derails very early on after a promising start, there is no tension, suspense or creativity and the more the film wore on the duller, blander, more vague and more confused it got. The overlong and sometimes unnecessary padding, scenes that go on too long and next to no real atmosphere other than awkwardness and camp are big reasons as to why, everything feels rushed and have not in a long time seen a more incoherent ending.

Concluding, after this the franchise was officially dead. This has all been said with a heavy heart and no maliciousness, just in case anybody's watching. 3/10 Bethany Cox

C'mon now people, this is the highlight of the hellraiser series. The first three are average, but this is just a masterpiece, and i'm shocked to find it has such a low rating on this site. I won't go into the story here but it's fiendishly clever, and subtle, unlike number four. The sooner they get these four (IV, V, VI, VII)films into a DVD box the better the world will be. It'd be cool if we could have a 5.1 THX mix of the soundtrack to to bring out some of the screams a bit more, and to do justice to the genius soundtrack. And as for the lack of Pinhead, well he's in more than enough of the other films, so quit your whining boy, and sit through this masterpiece again!

What do you do when you have an incredible body (with face to match) and want to get into doing predominately horror-type movies? You become Kari Wuhrer. From "Thinner" and "Eight-Legged Freaks" to "Anaconda" and now this (Hellraiser VII), Kari has quickly made an image for herself as the hottie horror actress. I don't mean to imply she hasn't diversified her career, but recently horror seems her genre. Did anybody see "Hitchhiker II"? Anyway, skins flicks and scary movies seem to go well together in a teenager-ish sort of way. Far be it from me to tell Kari to put some clothes on. And speaking of which, "Hellraiser VII" surprisingly gives you a peek at Kari's peaks (pun intended) as does "King of the Ants".

Okay, so I'm getting off track. The guys reading this will understand. As to the movie's story, it is far less entertaining than what I have written thus far. It has all the no-brainers - the box, Pinhead, and grisly pain and suffering in a hellish existence. But none of this was portrayed with the craft and cleverness of Hellraiser V, which was a mirror image of the video game series, Silent Hill. Hellraiser VII's story is all about a reporter, Amy Klein (Wuhrer), who begins investigating a cult in Europe called the Deaders. The members of this group commit suicide and then are brought back from the dead by an enigmatic ring leader. Amy's ambition and intrigue to uncover the truth soon lead her to a story, the makings of which she would rather not have known. This plot runs parallel to the in-hell-ignorant theme of some of the other sequels but adds a prophecy to it about a chosen one who can open the box. Unfortunately, this doesn't add anything useful to the story and leaves the ending full of pins, I mean holes. 3/10

I thought this movie was really good. I found myself interested the whole time in what was happening, and liked seeing the main character falling deeper into what she was trying to undercover. I liked the idea of the movie - I thought the "Deaders" were pretty cool. Some of the sequences were absolutely awesome. Lots of blood and horrific moments. Aside from that though, I felt like something was missing. It wasn't quite like the other Hellraiser movies, even the bad ones. It didn't seem like much of a Hellraiser movie at all, especially since Pinhead and the cenobites only get a tad amount of screen time. This movie wasn't originally written as a Hellraiser movie, so that explains the missing link. It was a definite improvement over the last couple in the Hellraiser series, and was a really great movie; but I'm not too sure if I'd really call it much of a Hellraiser movie.

Once one of horror's top franchises, the 'Hellraiser' series has slipped into direct to video hell thanks to a series of lack luster installments. While not quite a renaissance, 'Deader' shows some promise.

After viewing what appears to be a snuff film which concludes with the victim returning to life no less, a reporter (Kari Wuhrer) starts sifting through the details to uncover the truth. The trail eventually leads her to a cult called the Deaders who seem to have some kind of connection to the Lamet puzzle box and even the cenobites themselves.

After the abysmal 'Inferno' and the better-but-still-bad 'Hellseeker', the series was in real trouble of slipping completely off the radar. One more bad movie would have sealed the deal. Fortunately what is found is a competent horror piece. Director Rick Bota shows a flair for dark set pieces and controlled lighting, giving the film the proper dreary look. He also controls the camera well and makes good use of a limited budget.

The show stellar though is Kari Wuhrer. She is so willing (to the point of enthusiastic) to be covered in blood, shriek her lungs out and generally be terrorized and traumatized that it makes every thing kind of come together around her. This is most important with the nature of the script, which (while not bad by genre standards) is kind of ridiculous and not particularly evolved or compelling. If Wuhrer had been any less interested in her role the whole film would have come crashing down, but she instead carries the film quite nicely.

A couple of side notes: the film bucks the trend for white-washed PG-13 fare that has been flooding the horror genre as of late and really earns it's R-rating for a change. And I am sorry to report that much like the last two entries in the franchise there is precious little footage of Pinhead (Doug Bradley) or the other cenobites. This can be accounted for in the fact that the script was originally written as an unrelated piece and only changed to a 'Hellraiser' film shortly after production began; maybe in the next entry.

While not a classic by any means, it's a definite step up for the series that I would like to see continue.

7/10